Kronus
Kronus was a Toa of Gravity, who served as the leader of the Toa Rohaya during their duration, whose membership expanded to twenty core members at their peak. He died during the events of Heroes and Halflings, but defied death to serve a role in the epic's sequel. Bio Pre-''Heroes and Halflings'' Little is known of Kronus' history before the events of Heroes and Halflings. He presumably came the village of Ba-Koro, but even that isn't a set fact. What is known, though, is that he eventually washed up on the island Rohaya with three companions: Toa of Magnetism Ares, Toa of Iron Atlas, and Toa of Water Eos. This was not long before the Great Cataclysm occured, but for reasons currently unexplained, they formed a team on the island, Kronus becoming the leader. This choice initally earned him the ire of both Eos and Ares, who believed they should be the leaders, but he compensated for this in the future by making them his deputies. Once the Cataclysm happened and the war with the Brotherhood began, the Toa Rohaya quickly gained members, expanding to twenty core members within 200 years. They took advantage of their proximity to the island Shi-Nui and struck at Brotherhood and Dark Hunter ships that passed by. This started a benificial relationship with the people of Shi-Nui, who appreciated the extra protection to their shipping lanes that the team provided, and happily took custody of the prisoners and weapons the team took. They also sheltered other Toa on their island as well as their other duties, many of them remarking on their similarity to pirates. This stung the young leader, but he ignored it, knowing that he preferred it over outright warfare. Possibly one of his more risky choices came 200 years after the Catacylsm, when he was ambushed alone by a gang of Zyglak. Help came in the form of the wandering Lightning Toa Stara, who helped him defeat the group. Feeling indebted to her, he gave her a place to stay amongst his team, but it wasn't long before she confided in him that she was an exile. He refused to let her leave them easily, and she joined the Toa Rohaya as their last core member, on the condition that he never speak of her status without her permission. He agreed, but he was constantly torn between his fears and his promise afterwards. ''Heroes and Halflings'' Kronus' fears came to the fore 1001 years after the Great Catacylsm, when he and Stara went to Shi-Nui for a few days on a routine trip. During the few days they were absent, their eighteen friends were murdered by the halflings Fyre, Kiria, and Tayra, and only Stara's instincts saved them from sharing their fate. Kronus discovered the identity of their enemies, and the duo enlisted the help of the Toa Metru to help liberate Rohaya. During their time together, Kronus was filled with guilt at not being with his teammates when they fell, and was torn more than ever by his promise to Stara. The eve of their attack on the fortress of Rohaya, Kronus and Stara's tensions finally came to a head when he accidentally informed the Toa Metru of her exiled status. His moment of unrational thought cost him her trust in him and led to a fracture in their friendship, though they did regroup to fight together the next day. During the fight, he came to Stara's rescue by shielding her from a killing blow that Kiria would've dealt to her, at the cost of his own health detoriating rapidly even after the destruction of all three halflings at the hands of their progenitors. He managed to cling to life for three days, slipping in and out of hallucinations, but he and Stara managed to make peace with each other before he finally died. Stara buried his body alongside the rest of his team, hoping he had found peace. Notus and Lightning Strikes Twice Unknown to the Toa of Lightning, Kronus had not passed on after his death, instead winding up on the astral plane because of an ancient curse laid down by the deceased Toa of Fire Ajax, decreeing that any Toa or Turaga that were killed at the hands of Makuta and halflings would be suspended in the astral plane to protect a weapon from their clutches. As someone who had been killed directly by a halflings, Kronus fulfilled that requirement, as had his brothers and sisters. He was found by his former deputy and beloved, the Toa Rohaya Eos, who assured him that he had reconciled with Stara before he had died, and led him to the base of the dead: Notus, one of the six Amari Islands, which was the homeland of Stara. When Kronus arrived in the Cavern of Souls, Ajax himself was there; a rare occasion. He announced that their time as spirits was soon to end, and that when it did end, there would be a new Spirit Chieftain in charge: Kronus. The current Chief, Cascata, didn't take well to this and challenged Kronus to a fight that would decide who ruled the Cavern of Souls. Having little choice in the matter, the Gravity Toa accepted her challenge and defeated the Water Toa, but at the cost of a disfiguring wound to the face beneath his mask. His power assumed, he became Ajax's spokesman on Notus, protecting the Spear of Ajax from those that would destroy it. He and the other dead Toa Rohaya personally oversaw the village of Xi-Koro, keeping an eye on Stara and her people. But the time finally came for them to act as fighting guardians when a small band of Makuta used a small store of energized protodermis to turn one of their number, Deimos, into a halfling, using the Shadow of Turaga Nuju -- Stara's love -- as protection against her. Knowing that the key lay with them finding the recorded Legend of Ajax in the hut of the village's Chronicler, he took the first opprotunity to pass information along to his former teammate. When a report of Deimos' fortress came and Stara used a Noble Iden to investigate, Kronus borrowed her body and passed information on to her attendents. He meant to pass information on again the next day when she went to spy again, but Deimos began launching almost non-stop attacks on Notus, and he rapidly became wrapped up in the fight to protect the island. Two weeks after Deimos came to the island chain, Kronus seized another chance to pass information on during a slight lull in the attacks. Possessing Stara's temporarily-spiritless body, he managed to set Stara, Adridne, and Steena on the right track, and they managed to find the Legend of Ajax from among the other documents. Soon after the rediscovery of this document, the region's new Toa Stiaye (Stara's successor after she sacrificed her power) arrived home with three of her friends -- Aeolus, Amphitrite, and Japoro -- in the ship ''Jaswinder ''to assist the village. After sharing the discovered information, they went to Notus and descended to the Cavern of Souls, where the desceased Toa Rohaya were reunited with their sole living teammate. Kronus led them deeper into the caves that made up Notus' underground and brought the five living before Ajax, where Aeolus passed Ajax's test and gained the desceased Fire Toa's Spear. With time growing short, Kronus and his Toa Rohaya brought the quintet back to the surface, where they left them when the suns rose and they returned to the Cavern of Souls. Three days later, after Deimos was destroyed by Stiaye's use of the Spear of Ajax, she, Aeolus, Stara, and Nuju returned to Notus, where all the spirits on Notus had gathered on the surface to meet them. After explaining what had occured on Enyo, Stiaye accepted her new duty as the Bearer of the Spear of Ajax, which broke the curse binding the spirits to Notus. In their goodbyes before they faded, Kronus and his teammates gave two medallions made of a substance called soulmetal to Stara, giving her specific directions about what to do with them before they vanished. Personality As a leader, Kronus was put through the same problems many leaders are: forced to balance the well-being of his team (which was harder than usual, since his team was larger than most) with achieving their goals, along with managing enemies. Being in a war and commanding a larger team than was traditional made his duties harder, making the Toa of Gravity slightly shorter-tempered than he would normally be, and -- as demonstrated with his relationship with Stara -- sometimes forced to put the well-being of his team as a whole over the needs of an individual, including himself. Despite this shortcoming, he was well-regarded as a good person and leader, as well as a strong warrior and a clever tactition when the situation called for it. He was also known for his unorthodox ways to fight the Brotherhood by seizing passing warships, along with his willingness to allow Stara on his team while knowing her status. He was often highly concerned for his friends because of his promise to her, his worst nightmare being that Stara had slain the rest of the Toa Rohaya. Powers and Abilities As a Toa of Gravity, Kronus was able to increase and reduce gravity at will, often using it to sustain flight or make the head of his mace heavier than normal, allowing to deal more damage. He also had greater strength due to his work on Rohaya, along with near-mastery of his Kanohi Iden. As a spirit under Ajax's control, he was able to possess spiritless bodies and machines, like he could when he had used his Iden while alive. He was able to pass through solid objects, but he was not invunerable, since fellow Toa spirit Cascata was able to harm him in this state. Trivia *In the original draft of Heroes and Halflings, Kronus was not scheduled to die. However, Inferna changed her mind in the middle of her writing and chose to spare Stara, whom had been originally slated to die *Despite the fact Stara was given a bigger backround than him, Kronus has become something of a favorite amongst Heroes and Halflings fans, with several reviewers celebrating his return in Lightning Strikes Twice *A possibility of Kronus and Stara being a romantic couple was brought up several times by fans (most noticably Kagha) because of Heroes and Halflings' events. Inferna has since done her best to squash such ideas, succeeding with the release of the songfic Valentine's Day, which confirmed Kronus' romantic involvement with the Water Toa Eos *Inferna has confirmed that Kronus will play a role in the upcoming sequel for Lightning Strikes Twice. Whether or not this means he will appear physically is still unknown Category:Characters Category:Individuals Category:Heroes